Irish Eyes are Smiling
by Racetaps
Summary: Nora finds herself on a boat to New York.... she meets Jack and the craziness starts please read, I'm a new writer and would love help!
1. Leaving

*Disclaimer *  
  
I don't own any of the newsies or anything... so please don't sue me!  
  
Nora sighed as she looked at out along the huge expanse of the sea. She couldn't believe that her Dad had betrayed her like this. She had woken up this morning to the rocking of the boat underneath her. Looking frantically around she had seen a note sticking out of the jacket that had been placed over her.  
  
Nora,  
I know you'd never leave Ireland yourself; you love your wee brothers too much. It is not you job though, to be their mother. You dance like an angel and I know that dancing is the only think that will truly make you happy. Your immigration papers and as much money as I can afford are in your skirt pocket. I love you dearly and will miss you girly, but you will thank me one day, and one day I will bring your brothers to come find you!  
  
Hugs and Kisses,  
Your Dad  
  
As her fingers touched the money he had enclosed for her, tears welled up in her eyes. Her twin brother's twinkling eyes looked up at her whenever she though of home. They were young yet and they would have no one to look after them now with Dad out with the sheep all day. She reluctantly pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind, that was her old life and whether she liked it or not she was heading towards a new one.  
New York City, it had been a place that haunted her dreams. It was the place her mother had run to, abandoning her three year old child. She had always yearned to follow her there; it was the land of promise. Now that she was faced with the reality that she was going, all she wanted to do was turn back. She missed Ireland already. She didn't know anyone in New York and she had no place to go. It looked like she would be living on the streets at least for a little while.  
She looked at the cool blue of the water and hoped that things would get better soon. How could they not? What could be worse than three weeks on a lurching boat? 


	2. New York

As Nora stepped off the boat she could feel herself sway, it had been so long since she had last been on land. Breaking off from her wistful thoughts she scampered down the ramp. Suddenly, she caught her breath. This city was much bigger than she would have ever dared imagine. Dublin was completely dwarfed by the sheer quantity of people she could see milling through the streets.  
She felt a large hand close over her shoulder. Whirling around, she came face to face with a jolly old man.  
"You look might lost," the man cackled, "I'll help you get through customs."  
She thanked him but told him that she would be fine by herself, and truthfully she was fine, somehow her Dad had known exactly what kind of identification to give her. She swept right through customs and was then truly on her own. It was starting to get dark, so she decided to try to find somewhere to stay. She knew her prospects weren't good because she didn't have time to find any American money.  
She wandered around for about an hour, trying to orient herself in this new place. She was beginning to get tired so she abandoned her hope that she would find someone who would give her a place to stay. She came across a tiny park which, if she curled herself in the right position, had just enough grass. She lad down and almost immediately drifted off to sleep.  
Memories from Ireland and her old life colored her dreams. Sometime during the night someone lay down nest to her, thinking it was one of her baby brothers, she cuddled up next to him. 


	3. Meeting Jack

Nora slowly opened her eyes expecting the sun to be just peeking under the binds. She jerked completely awake when she saw where she actually slept. She turned over and looked at the body that had kept her warm all night. It was a boy that looked a little bit older than her; he had a red bandana tied around his neck. His clothes were pretty dirty and he had a newly developing black eye. He looked nice so she decided she wanted to talk to him.  
She nudged him awake. "What do you think you're doing?" he grumbled. "What do you think you're doing?" She shot back, "you're the one who came and lay down with a girl." "Who are you anyways?" he looked dazed "What happened and how did I get here?" "I think your shiner might explain what happened." She laughed shyly at him. "My name is Nora by the way, and who are you?" "Nice to meet ya kid," he grinned. "My name's Jack, but my friends call me Cowboy." "Cowboy? Why Cowboy?" "It's a long story, but basically it's my newsies name." He chuckled. "Newsies? What's newsies?" Nora questioned. "Oh, girl, you've got a lot to learn, the newsies rule this city. You're not from around here are you? I didn't notice your accent until now." "I'm from Ireland, I just arriver here yesterday." She looked at him sadly, "And because I had no place to go I ended up sleeping here." He looked at her, surprised, "A nice girl like you has no where to sleep at night? We'll have to do something about this." "What can you do? You were sleeping here too." Nora looked at him quizzically. "Hey now, none of that." He winked at her. "That was just last night; I do have a place I usually stay at." Suddenly he jumped up, "speaking of which, my boys will probably be worried." He headed off away from the park but stopped short and turned around "Hey Nora, you wanna tag along?" She looked at him and grinned, "Well, I don't have anything better to do, and anyways I want to see what these 'newsies' do." 


	4. Introductions

Nora scampered along trying to keep pace with Jack's huge strides. She was wondering who Jack's boys were, she hoped they would be as nice as Jack. She couldn't believe how big New York was, they had been walking for a good thirty minutes and they hadn't seemed to make any progress. When she was finally at her wit's end and was about to ask Jack if they could take a breather he stopped in front of a restaurant. When she looked in the window she saw a mass of boys.  
"Here we are: Tibby's" Jack said as he opened the door for her. They were greeted by yells, the loudest of which was blurted out by a shortish boy with an unlit cigar sticking out his mouth: "Dear me, what do we have here."  
Jack quietly whispered, "That's Racetrack, don't pay an attention to him."  
Nora ignored Jacks' advice and turned to face Racetrack. "Dear me yourself boy, how about saying hello."  
Racetracks' face brightened, "Nice catch Jack, she's even got an accent."  
Nora squared her feet off bracing herself, but Jack nudged her and winked. "Now Race, I didn't 'catch' her I just met her today."  
Racetrack rolled his eyes but backed off. A boy with curly hair and cutoff paints approached Nora. "Hey, where are you really from?"  
Nora looked at him and could feel a blush rising to her cheeks. Jack smiled knowingly, "this here is Mush, he loves the ladies, you better watch out for him."  
Mush playfully punched Jack in the shoulder. Nora looked slyly at Jack "I think I'll do just fine by myself," and winked at Mush.  
Jack waved his hands above his head, trying to get everyone to settle down. "Since everyone seems to want to meet her, I might as well introduce her to everyone at the same time. This here is Nora, and yes she does have an accent, she's from Ireland. And just to let you know I expect you all to help her out in her couple days here."  
"Sounds good," "Alright," "yup" all the boys agreed.  
Racetrack stepped forward and looked up at Jack "nice shiner, how did you come by that one?"  
Jack stopped and suddenly lost his cheerfulness. "Butterfingers and his gang were at it again, so I had to show them whose territory they were on. No one's gonna leach from us." He lifted his hand and pumped it in the air. Everyone blatantly laughed at him, this display didn't seem to be unusual.  
Race poked Jack in the ribs "sure... we believe you." He winked at Nora  
  
*SLAM * Two boys came crashing through the door, the older one looked to be about Jack's age which the younger one looked to be only 8 or 9. They were greeted with cheerful yelps from all the boys.  
"Sorry we're late," the older boy started, "our..." he stopped when his eyes came to rest on Nora, "who's this?"  
Jack stepped forward, "This is Nora, Nora this is David and the little one that came in with his is his brother Les."  
Les gave Nora a half-hearted wave and started attacking Race with his wooden sword. Race feigned gear and gave him an affectionate cuff on the shoulder.  
"Hey, hey don't forget me!" A boy with an eye-patch approached Nora and Jack.  
"This here is Blink, Mush's best friend; it's hard to find one of them without the other." David flourished his hand at them.  
Nora smiled at Blink, all these boys seemed nice; she was glad she had come along with Jack. Sliding in to a booth next to Jack she sat back smiling as she watched the newsies antics.  
Suddenly she was yanked out of the booth and swung up to a standing position. "Hey girly, you want to dance?" Blink's eye twinkled. "Yeah." Nora practically glowed at the though of dancing for the first time in a month.  
Blink quickly cleared off a table and pulled her up with him. He started dancing: slowly at first as if to check to see how good she was. She effortlessly kept up with him step for step. Quickly they reached top speed. Everyone else had completely stopped moving and was watching in awe as the two jigged along. Suddenly Racetrack sprang up on the table to join them.  
"Hey Nora can you do this?" Racetrack began to effortlessly soft- shoe tap. Nora quickly picked up his patter and the two taped together. After a while the other newsies began to add on, doing their own versions of the dance. This continued until the three on the table had become tired and collapsed in a heap.  
"You sure are one hotshot on the dance floor." Race grinned at her; it seemed that she had won him over.  
"Yeah, Race we've finally met our match." Blink laughed, "Hey that's it! I've thought of Nora's nickname, we'll call her Dance!"  
  
SOs  
  
Poker O'Shea—thanks for the advice, I've tried to make this one a little longer, I'd like to know what you think!!  
  
Dreamer Conlon—thanks for reading!! Here's some more, I hope you enjoy it! 


	5. Dance

*from now on I'm going to call Nora Dance *  
  
It began to get late and the newsies realized that tomorrow as usual they would have to be selling papes. Dance realized that once again she probably was not going to have a place to stay. It seemed that Jack had forgotten about his promise because he had disappeared a short while ago with David. She looked around wistfully as the guys began to say their farewells. Suddenly she was seized by Mush and Race and was swept out the door.  
"There is no way you're sleeping on the street again, Missy." Racetrack wagged his finger at her.  
"Yeah, a pretty girl like you shouldn't be out there alone." Mush added earnestly.  
"Ok, then what are we gonna do?" Hope began to bubble back into Dance.  
"We're gonna sneak you into our boarding house." Mush whispered.  
"ya don't need to whisper yet dumbass, we're not there yet!" Race playfully batted at Mush's head.  
Dance felt warmth rise up her stomach. The knot that had built up there began to release. Suddenly Mush's head snapped around to look at a girl who was sitting on a curb nearby. The girl looked to be about Dance's height a miniscule 5'3. The girl's brown curly hair was pulled into two meticulous tight braids. The hairstyle reminded Dance of how her mother used to do her hair, now she let her auburn hair dance around her head in cascading waves.  
"Hey Touchdown." Mush addressed the girl; she didn't look up, instead she continued to push a pebble around with the tip of her shoe.  
"Are you waiting for Crutchy?" Race tried this time.  
The girl slowly looked up to reveal a tearstained face. She shook her head and looked down pulling her knees back up to cover her face. Dance felt her heart go out to the girl. She sat down next to the girl and spoke softly.  
"Hey Touchdown, I'm Nora, well now Dance. We both know these bums are trying to help but would you rather talk to a girl?"  
Touchdown looked up at Dance and a smile began to play across her lips. Dance shooed the boys across the street and put her arm around Touchdown.  
"It's my brother," Touchdown said with a sigh," We can't find him, he got in a fight last night and we haven't seen him since."  
"Who's we?" Dance asked quizzically as she looked around, finally her eyes rested on a petite Asian girl who was curled tightly into a ball next to Touchdown. The girl was sleeping so peacefully that Dance hadn't noticed her before.  
"This is Runaway, she's the reason Spot was fighting. He and Smooth have been fighting for her attention for years and finally last night, it turned to fists. We were just heading to the lodging house where those two live, "she pointed at Race and Mush, "hen she collapsed." Touchdown's eyes filled with terror, "what if Spot's not ok?"  
"He's gotta be alright, he's got you two to live for doesn't he?" Dance realized that Race and Mush had seen Touchdown point at them and had returned.  
"Is Spot ok?" Race looked worried.  
"He's got to be, he's the great Spot Conlon right?" Mush faltered.  
"We don't know," Dance took charge "Touchdown and Runaway were just about to check your lodging house, so if one of you would grab Runaway we can be on our way."  
Touchdown looked gratefully at Dance as Mush swung the still sleeping Runaway over his shoulder. They made their way quickly through the streets and finally reached the lodging house. Race went barging through the door but stopped so suddenly that Dance bumped into him and almost sent him flying.  
After her eyes had adjusted to the lack of light in the room she saw Jack and David sitting at a table with a boy. The boy looked up at her, he had the most intense blue eyes that she had ever seen. It seemed to her that she could see the whole sky in his eyes.  
Their gaze was broken as Dance heard Touchdown shriek and run to the boy's side.  
"Oh my god, what happened," Touchdown horror struck. Dance realized that the boy who must be Spot had a bloody gash down his right cheek. She cringed and swallowed trying not to imagine what sort of weapon would have left that kind of mark. Mush set Runaway down in a chair as they all crowded around Spot. Jack gave Race a reproachful look.  
"Give the boy some air." Jack commanded, "he's not gonna tell the whole story again, he's safe and alive that's all that matters."  
Race backed off and pulled Dance with him.  
"I'll show you where you'll sleep tonight, and also get you some new clothes so we can get rid of those rags you're wearing right now."  
Dance looked down and blushed realizing how hideous her clothes truly were.  
"Stay here," Race ducked into a room quickly and returned waving a pair of green cutoff pants, a white shirt, some tan suspenders and a brown cap. He plopped the hat on her head.  
"looking better already." He declared.  
She tweaked his nose, "It's only a hat."  
He smiled knowingly and handed her the clothing, "Come with me, I'll introduce you to the girls you'll be rooming with."  
They approached a door with a large "ladies" sign adorning it. The sign reminded Dance of the sign that had hung on the door to the women's bathroom at the pub her dad had frequented. Dance pushed these thoughts away as Race rapped on the door.  
Someone yelled "Coming!" from inside and the door was flung open to reveal two laughing blue eyes. A long mop of red hair accompanied the flashing eyes. Dance felt immediately comfortable.  
"Hey Race, what can I do for ya?" Dance caught a hint of an Irish accent mixed in with the heavy New York accent. She smiled to herself already knowing that she liked the girl.  
"Hey Trolley," Race said grinning at her, "I've got a new girl here for you. She just arrived from Ireland and I was hoping she could stay here with you and Jazz for a little while."  
Trolley looked Dance up and down, "I'm glad Race gave you some new clothes because if he had thought you were going to wear what you're wearing now they would've had something coming." She rattled off at top speed with a straight face but then cracked a smile when she poked Race in the stomach. "Go begin the screen there, girl, and change it'll feel great. I don't even want to know how long you've been wearing your old stuff."  
Dance gratefully scampered behind the screen and listened as Trolley kept talking.  
"you're from Ireland huh? I moved from Ireland when I was four so I don't even remember it." Trolley gave a satisfied sigh as Dance reappeared in clean clothes.  
"Wow, I didn't know girls could look that good in guys clothes." Race exclaimed.  
Dance ran behind the screen again pretending she had forgotten something.  
"Don't embarrass the poor girl." Trolley said as she batted at Race's stomach, "I bet she's tired anyways, meeting you lot could tire any girl out, so let her get some sleep, we'll see you in the morning." Trolley pushed Race gently out the door.  
"Night Race." Dance quietly said from behind the screen as the door closed.  
"I think Race has taken quite a liking to you." Trolley winked as Dance reappeared. "Alright you can sleep in Jazz's bed tonight because she's not around."  
Dance slid under the covers. "goodnight Da, g'night Michael and Sean, good night Blink, David, Les," She tried to remember everyone she had met that day, "Trolley, Touchdown, Runaway, Jack, Mush and Race." She smiled to herself as she slipped off to sleep.  
  
SO's  
  
Cookiegoilforever: I hope there are some more details for you in this one; I tried to incorporate more, thanks for your awesome advice!  
  
N'er do Well Cad: is this format any better? Hopefully it is! I put some descriptions of Dance in there I hope that helps out!  
  
Xaviere Jade: I hope this chapter's better!! And I added the anonymous reviewer thingy, thanks for the advice!!  
  
KEEP READING GUYS... I LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU... AND THANKS FOR THE ADVICE!! 


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